Amazon have now launched this in the UK. For £49/year you get unlimited next-day delivery of any value order, membership covers up to 4 accounts at one address. Would you join? Do you ever pay Amazon for delivery now, or is slow but free your choice? The Prime service has been running in the US for a few years now, how's it going, Yanks? Amazon details
I use the free but slow option. In my experience its usually 3 rather than 5 days anyway. Its a clever way of enticing someone to use their store rather than a competitor though. If you see one thing you might buy from Amazon and know that you'd use them enough to justify the £50 then as soon as you've signed up your unlikely to buy anything anywhere else even if the price is slightly lower.
I've always been happy with their supersaver delivery. I often wait and buy a few things at once, picking up birthday/Christmas presents for people ahead of time if it takes it over the minimum spend. I don't recall anything taking more than 2-3 days anyway. I can see how it might be worth it though if you made lots of orders or had a few people sharing accomodation.
I usually just get super saver, but when i ordered my orange box it took over ten horrible long dreary days to arrive. But i'm a proper cheapskate and saved over £3 doing that so its probably worth it. By the same token being effectively tied to Amazon doesn't really sit well, perhaps if I read more.
My other half and I order quite a lot through amazon and the prime is now looking quite tempting. does the included next day delivery apply only to items sent to the home account address or can it also be used for gifts to other addresses? I always used to use the super saver option because it usually only took 3 days to b delivered, however over the last 6-12 months the super saver delivery time has been getting longer and longer to the point that my delivery for an in stock product from amaon is now only dispatched ofter 4-5 days and takes another 4-5 to arrive. I normally order my books well in advance of needing them but 10 days is now getting silly doubly so if ordering presents for people's birthdays. the other advantage to me is the no minimum value order as i currrently normally need to order the two books I want and a third Meh book to take me to £15
I'll almost always go for free delivery (if possible) - it makes it easier to justify things I buy to the missus
I'd never pay that much for delivery off odds and sods. If amazon won't deliver an item for free I generally go to play (or Cd-Wow, anyone who'll do free delivery). I'm not usually in any rush for my product and on the rare occasions I am, even if I pay for uber-delivery the thing still generally takes as long to arrive.
The bad part about free shipping through Amazon is that if you return the item for a refund they take the price of shipping back out of it .
I have Prime, and getting two-day for free (after the membership fee anyways) on everything is great, not to mention very cheap upgrades to overnight. If you only buy once a year then it's pointless, but if you buy frequently then it's worth it for many, and I hate going to any retail store.
How much do your pay for prime in the US? I know its a difficult comparison given post is very different in each country but i'm curious.
got the email today but I don't find ordering £15 hard to meet for free carr. & I'm not too bothered aboy next day versus a few days. I can do other things with £50.
$79, say £38, but that's 2-day (it's a wide country). Better to look at your typical order rates and how many deliveries you need to break even - but Amazon have a complicated system with flat rate + rate per item, and different rates for books, DVDs, electronics, etc. I've only paid once, and that was a mistake, in a rush and forgot to change the default.
Yes, $79 for two-day on all Prime items (which, while not everything, is a lot - and most of the stuff that isn't worth paying to ship like their entire grocery selection is Prime), and it's almost always under $5 for overnight, $1.99 on many items. For comparison, going one-up-from-saver (3day? normal ground?) will often be $10-15 unless you're just getting a book or CD, and that's still rather slow. If you do four or so orders a year of anything with decent bulk, it's probably worth it. Even if it doesn't exactly save on shipping, you'll pay not much extra for MUCH faster speeds. It took about three weeks for me to get my camera from Amazon with super saver, and for $3 extra or something, I had my new lens the next day (again, compare to a week or so for $10 normally, or three weeks for free). That, plus it's a lot easier to use Amazon and just buy it there rather than find out what I want and research it then go out locally to save the buck on shipping when you have prime. The cost of gas probably makes up the difference anyways, not to mention the convenience.
